Andrean falls one run short in 3-2 loss at 3A State Championship game to New Palestine

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

6-20-2004

Team (Record) / Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
ANDREAN (27-8)	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	2	3	1
New Palestine (30-4)	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	3	9	4

6-19-2004 - 3A State Championship Game - at Victory Field - Indianapolis

WP - Andrew Clark (10-0) CG, 7Ks, 3 walks (101 pitches)
LP - Mike Ryan (8-4) 1 2/3 1K, 0 walks (24 pitches)
Steve Augsburger (7-2, ND) 6K, 1 walk, 4 1/3 inn. (80 pitches)

Andrew Clark (NP) HR, single, 2 RBIs
Craig Smith (NP) Double, single
Jake Lee (NP) Double, single, RBI
Anthony Cera (A) Single, RBI
Mike Staehle (A) Walk, RBI
Tommy Finn (A) Walk, stolen base

INDIANAPOLIS (6-19-2004) - It seemed all lined up for Andrean and 25th year coach Dave Pishkur to win the school's first baseball state title. They'd reached the state finals in 2003 and failed, which is usually a springboard to success the next year. The 59ers, ranked number one, had won every playoff game by three runs or more. And it was the senior season for Pishkur's son Ryne Pishkur, who had come up with some key hits during the playoff run.

But New Palestine beat Andrean 3-2. And even if you forget that this was Andrean's fifth state title game loss (3 in football, one in basketball) since 1997, and that they held a 2-1 lead with eight outs to go, the biggest hurt came from the fact that Pishkur, one of the traditional coaches in northwest Indiana and a 500-win career coach, could not go home with the school's first boys state championship.

"One run ball game," Pishkur said later. "A lot of things could happen. When your son's playing his last game, that hurts a little bit. He's hurt because he wants me to win. Whoever's on the team, that's who I want to win for."

"This doesn't hurt me nearly as much as it hurts me for them (the seniors). I feel sorry for each one of those guys. If I never win a state championship, would I look back and say I didn't do a good job here? Do I have to put a stamp on it? I don't think so."

But you really thought that this perfect 70-degree day in downtown Indianapolis would be a celebration for Andrean. First, Bishop Noll, Andrean's Catholic sister school in Lake County, just won the Class 2A state title with a 2-0 win over Muncie-area power Wapahani.

Then, the 59ers (27-8) scored first in the second inning when light-hitting Anthony Cera smacked a hard line drive RBI single to center field, scoring Mike Ryan. This was against left-hander Andrew Clark (10-0), who had 106 strikeouts and an 0.24 ERA in 58 innings.

When New Palestine, a west suburban Indianapolis school, tied the game on doubles by Craig Smith and Jake Lee in the second inning, Andrean regained the lead. Nick Stockwell singled to center and went to third base when Clark's pickoff attempt bounced down the right field line. Stockwell scored the 2-1 run on Mike Staehle's ground out to short.

But the game was decided in the fifth inning. Joaquin Rodriguez and Stockwell both reached on infield errors and Staehle walked to fill the bases with nobody out. No. 3 hitter Tommy Finn (.449) hit the first pitch, a catchable soft line drive into right field. New Palestine's Craig Ulrey charged the ball, bobbled it and held on. Rodriguez, the 59ers football tailback, did not immediately tag up and eventually held third.

"First of all," said Pishkur, "we knew the right fielder had their best arm. So when he looked like he would catch it, he was charging it so I said 'No, no, no!' Then he bobbled it, and I said 'Go, go, go.' But it was too late. If I knew he'd juggle it, I'd have sent him. But there was nobody out and you'd hate to make two outs on one play."

Steve Walsh then worked the count to 1-2 against the hard throwing Clark and hit what appeared to be a slider on the outside corner right at New Palestine second baseman Justin Pribble. Pribble grabbed the ball, tagged Staehle and threw Walsh out at first, ending the inning to the roar of the large New Pal cheering section.

"Steve Walsh puts the ball in play," said Pishkur, "if it's a few feet either way, it's not a double play and we go up 3-1. That changed the game. We don't practice that play. Maybe once a year. He (Staehle) has probably practiced that play three times in four years. You can't blame the kid if we haven't practiced that play. Actually, he did part of the right thing. He stopped in the baseline. You don't want to run into the tag. But he needed to run back towards first base to avoid the tag until the run scored."

Had Staehle run back to first base forcing Pribble to throw to first base and then catch him in a rundown, the run scoring from third would have counted.

"If Tommy gets a base hit there," said Pishkur, "We break the game open. We might score four or five. That was the turning point."

In the bottom of the fifth, Andrean starter Steve Augsburger got the first out before giving up a single to the Dragons' Chad Bruce. With one on and one out in what was still a one-run game, Pishkur changed pitchers, replacing the change-of-speed specialist Augsburger with the hard-throwing Ryan to face Clark, who bats third for New Palestine.

Ryan got ahead in the count 0-2, but he threw a curve ball that didn't dip and the big sophomore star launched a no-doubt-about-it homer, a booming shot, maybe 375 feet, onto the green grassy area beyond right field. The 6-2, 190-pound, 16-year-old left-handed hitter was batting .413 coming into the finals. Clark, who Indy area folks say is a future pro player, also had a single and a stolen base plus pitching the complete game.

"The pitch got away," Pishkur said of the toss that Clark hit. "Pitches are going to get away from Kerry Wood. He (Ryan) didn't mean to put it there. A lot of times, a pitch gets away from high school kids and the batter misses it. He (Clark) didn't miss it. Give him credit."

"The second and third inning were the big thing," Clark said later. "I got rattled there for a bit. But we were able to put a run on the board. We'd worked all week on hitting because last week we didn't really step up. It was a curve ball. He (Ryan) just left it up. I got that huge hit and now nobody's going to look at the errors I made. They're just going to look at our victory."

Andrean starting pitcher Steve Augsburger (7-2) bothered New Palestine with offspeed pitches, striking out six and walking one in 4 1/3 innings but when Chad Bruce (.316) reached him for a one-out single in the fifth inning, Pishkur pulled him for Ryan, the 59ers' top starter for two seasons.

"The plan was to go with Steve for five and then Mike for the last two," Pishkur said later. "Steve did a great job. He got a lot of strikeouts. Knowing what I know now, I'd have left Steve in. That was the one guy we said could not beat us at the plate. He's the one we talked about. We didn't want to let him beat us. We had him 0-2. We could've thrown four curveballs in the dirt and let him go to first base. He was the guy we were most worried about. The way the wind was blowing, I knew he could hit one out today."

"We've got good players coming back," said Pishkur, speaking of Augsburger, Finn, Rodriguez and others." It took us forever to win a regional and a semistate. Unfortunately, that kid (Clark) is just a sophomore so somebody's going to have to knock them off."

Ryne Pishkur, who will now join Walsh and Tommy Finn on American Legion Post 20 this summer, said his dad would be okay.

"But he's going to second guess himself for a long time," Ryne said. "We all wanted to win it for him. But it's baseball. One game can go either way."

FINALS NOTES: Nearby New Palestine must have had 2,000 fans in the 14,000-seat Victory Field. Andrean had, perhaps 800-1,000 fans in the stands. The disparity did not appear to have an effect on the game because the Dragons did not mount any extended rallies and committed four errors themselves. But the sea of red-clad fans on the third base side was very impressive.

"We've got a lot of support," Andrew Clark said.

Brownsburg lost the state championship game for the second consecutive season, 3-1 to underdog Lawrence Central. Crown Point defeated Lawrence Central 11-5 in mid-May in a tournament in Terre Haute.

Andrean center fielder Nick Stockwell," who threw Chris Ulrey out at home plate on a single to center to end the fifth inning, was named the 3A Mental Attitude Award winner. The award is given to a senior who is outstanding academically and athletically from a state finals team.

"It's a great honor," said Stockwell. "Everybody here would rather have the big trophy. I'm honored. It represents all my four years. I cherished all four years here. There's a lot of memories. I went to four state finals in football and baseball. I'd have liked to have won one of them but you can't change that. We all wanted to win for coach. He's a legend in baseball at Andrean. Maybe they'll get it next year. I'll be rooting for them to get back here next year."

"Nick's got a high GPA," said Pishkur. "He's going to the University of Illinois to play baseball. Nick's a great athlete. His play kept us in the game and he did the same thing in the semistate, throw a guy out at the plate."

"Our kids didn't quit. You feel bad for them in a one run game. They took advantage of their chance and we didn't."